NOTD: Pink & Blue Nails for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month - Wave of Polish.

Hello lovelies,

Did you know that October is International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month? I didn't, until it was brought to my attention on a Beautyheaven forum a couple of weeks ago! While I haven't gone through this myself, I do know several wonderful ladies who have, and I can only imagine how heartbreaking the whole experience would be.

October 15th is the official Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Day, with people around the world asked to light a candle at 7 pm in memory of the precious lives taken too early from this world. A group of wonderful Australian ladies decided to create a Facebook page called Wave of Polish to show support to this cause by committing to paint their nails blue and pink to raise awareness for Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month, with special emphasis placed on October 15th. In addition, an auction of one-off polishes made by Australian indie brands will be held, beginning at 9 am on the 8th of October and finishing on the 15th of October, with all proceeds raised going to Sands Australia. Click here for details on the auction.

Here's the blue and pink mani I came up with for International Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. I used piCture pOlish Whimsy and Essie Cascade Cool for my base colours, Maybelline New York Color Show Sequins in Rose Bling on my ring finger, and Revlon Lunar and Sally Hansen White On for the dotticures.

Read more after the jump!

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013!

Hello lovelies!

Welcome to a very special post, piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013! This year's theme is 'Celebrating the year of the blogger', which is all about celebrating bloggers and what they do!

If you haven't come across it before, Blog Fest is the annual celebration hosted by piCture pOlish where bloggers from all around the world come together on the same day (this year it's the 29th of July) and post reviews of piCture pOlish shades. Although Blog Fest is usually the same day that new shades are released (and reviewed on the blogs), piCture pOlish are doing things a bit differently this year...instead of releasing new shades, they sent all participating bloggers three existing shades and challenged them to come up with a nail art look, complete with tutorial.

I was sent Coral Reef, Whimsy and Beige, and here's what I came up with:

My nail art submission for piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013.

Keep reading after the jump!

NOTD - Lacy French Manicure

Hello lovelies!

I have a new NOTD post to show you, here's the manicure I was wearing last week. I meant to share it earlier but things have been a little busy; but hey, better late than never, right?

This is Ozotic 745 (I bought this from piCture pOlish), worn over white polish as a base. It's a really unique polish as it has a special effect known as a 'colour flop' (I got that special terminology off the website). It's basically a shimmery pink that changes colour to gold with lighting, and also looks completely different when applied on its own, over white polish and over black polish. It's such a pretty shade, I can never decide what colour I'm looking at, as it sometimes even reflects back as silver (talk about indecisive?)!

I tried to take photos in different light conditions to give you an idea.

Artificial 'day' lighting.

With flash.

Under fluorescent lighting.

In direct sunlight.

See what I mean about reflecting silver?

After a day, I decided to add scalloped black polish over the tips and also traced a line of white before adding another line of black. I quite loved the effect, it really dressed it up a bit.

Artificial 'day' lighting.

In natural daylight.

Under fluorescent lighting.

In natural daylight.

In direct sunlight.

I hope you liked that, lovelies!

I'm off to bed now as I'm absolutely exhausted! Stay tuned as I have a fashion show-themed post and another Illamasqua makeover (plus purchases) post to share soon!


Much love,
MM.
x

NOTD - piCture pOlish Wisteria

Hi lovelies!

A quickie post today to share my new favourite purple shade! It's a lovely purple creme from piCture pOlish, called Wisteria. I'd been lusting after it for a while so when I saw it up for grabs on Beautorium (on Beautyheaven), I couldn't resist!

The formula on this polish is amazing, it's so opaque that it could really be a one-coater, but because I'm a creature of habit, I used two coats of Wisteria over my usual Poshe basecoat before finishing off with Poshe topcoat. The brush is excellent as it was really easy to paint my nails perfectly with a couple of swipes. My only concern is it might get a bit gluggy after some time, but it's nothing a little polish thinner won't fix.

I can't tell you how much I love this shade! I've gotten lots of compliments while wearing it, that's how pretty it is! You know how you might get this perfect shade in your head and then struggle to find a polish to measure up? This is basically one of my perfect shades!

Can't comment much on dry time or tip wear (since I've used Poshe topcoat with it) but I can say that I made it to five days with only minimal wear on the tips, and that was probably due more to the excessive housework I was doing than to the formula of the polish!

Without further ado, let me introduce you to Wisteria...

Under natural daylight.

  

Under artificial 'white' light.

Under artificial 'white' light.

  

Under artificial 'white' light.

Under natural daylight.

Under artificial 'day' lighting.

Under artificial 'day' lighting.

Isn't it a gorgeous shade, lovelies? It gives me a little burst of happiness every time I look down and see it! I think it will be simply perfect for summer.

I have a few more polishes to swatch from piCture pOlish so stay tuned (I might have gone a bit overboard and ordered a few more too).

Much love,
MM.
x

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012!

Hi lovelies,

I have an extra special post to share with all of you today; welcome to piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2012! If you haven't heard of it before, Blog Fest is where piCture pOlish nail polishes are being reviewed on blogs all around the world, all on the same day, the 30th of July. It's also the day where brand new shades are released, so it's a very exciting day indeed! The lovely ladies at piCture pOlish sent out a request in early June for beauty bloggers who were keen on participating in Blog Fest 2012, and I was lucky enough to be chosen and sent two brand new shades to review! It was thrilling to participate not just because I love the brand, but also because many of my favourite bloggers have participated in previous years.

Without further ado, let me introduce you to two very gorgeous shades; Dorothy and Attitude!

Dorothy is a new 'Mesh' shade; a gorgeous scarlet glitter with lots of red and silver microglitter particles. It's aptly named as I think of ruby red slippers every time I look at it! I find that the intensity of colour changes depending on the lighting. It was really easy to apply and so opaque that I could probably have gotten away with just one coat, but I used two out of habit. It does get a little thick after a while, but it's nothing that a drop or two of polish restorer/thinner won't fix.

piCture pOlish Dorothy.

Under artificial light.

In natural daylight.

Under direct sunlight.

Under direct sunlight.

Under artificial natural lighting.

Attitude is a beautiful aubergine creme polish with scattered holographic microglitter particles, it's simply too stunning to put into words. Attitude was formed between Kim from Overall Beauty and piCture pOlish, and is part of the new 'Collaboration Collection'. This polish is a little thinner and a bit streaky compared to Dorothy, so I used three thin coats to achieve the perfect finish.

piCture pOlish Attitude.

With flash to show the holographic glitter.

Under direct sunlight.

Under natural daylight.

Under natural daylight.

Under natural daylight.

Both polishes are great quality polishes that apply beautifully and last quite long on nails without undue tip wear. They also dry very quickly with Poshe topcoat applied on top. I love the bottles as the square design makes for easy, efficient storage, and you get a generous 11 ml in each bottle. Dorothy retails for $9.50 while Attitude retails for $11.50, which I think is reasonable, given that OPI is generally retails for almost $20.

Dorothy is available from the website (which ships internationally) and from all Network members (if you're not based in Australia, just look for a Network member in your country) while Attitude is available exclusively from their website or from Overall Beauty. The polishes are made in Australia and there are QR codes on each bottle so you can scan it and it takes you directly to the website or the Network member it was purchased from. You can also find piCture pOlish on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Will I be purchasing more polish from piCture pOlish? I certainly will, and I already have a wish list including shades like White Wedding, Kryptonite, PMT, Denim and Wisteria (don't you just love the names?).

Much love,
MM.
x

Note: These samples were kindly provided for my consideration. This has not affected my opinion in any way. For more information, please refer to my Disclosure Policy.